It can safely be said that predicting the nominees, let alone the eventual winners, of the 90th annual Academy Awards, is as difficult this year as it has ever been.

With the war in Afghanistan ongoing and no immediate end to the conflict in sight, the fact 12 Strong plays like nationalistic propaganda shouldn’t be surprising.

None of that matters because Den of Thieves is so brain dead, so filled with bad ideas and lame plot devices, that maintaining interest in what is going on and why, let alone caring about who is going to survive until the end, is practically impossible.

Neeson and Collet-Serra know what they’re doing and they’ve got the formula down pat. For fans of the pair, there are certainly far worse ways to spend a couple of hours. If anything, The Commuter sure beats getting stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home from work.

I might even go so far as to proclaim Paddington 2 pretty much perfect, but let me indulge in one more marmalade sandwich before I make the decision to say just that.

Day-Lewis has said this is his last role, that with Phantom Thread’s release he is retiring from acting. If this is indeed the case, Anderson has crafted for the three-time Academy Award winner a role fitting of his legendary talents.

But it is the film’s eerie sound design that is most impressive. Staub uses it as a weapon, keeping both the characters and the audience constantly discombobulated, and it is frequently impossible to know what each little creak in the floorboards, whistle of wind or crack of lightning signifies let alone where they might be coming from.

Hostiles isn’t an easy sit, the end resolution a cultural demolition that, no matter how pure the intentions of the survivors might be, could prove to be even more heinous than the violence they, their compatriots and those standing against them all faced in a cold, lonely wilderness where every step could be someone’s last.

But even if Gillespie and Rogers don’t go for the jugular, I still enjoyed much of what their truth is stranger than fiction real crime enterprise had to offer, and while I, Tonya doesn’t land a triple axel, it’s safe to say it doesn’t go splat face-first into the ice, either.